I Capture the Castle

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Funny, sad, moving and, above all, astute, making I Capture the Castle a fabulous film. Even the cars are tasty.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's a rich, emotional story, a wonderfully appealing film made with humor and intelligence, but there is also something almost magical about how it takes the stuff of innumerable previous films -- love, romance and adolescent coming of age -- and turns them into something that feels one of a kind.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Screwball farce, romance, domestic tragicomedy and literary frolic rolled into one.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

We like these people, which is important, and we are amused by them, which is helpful, but most of all we envy them, because they negotiate their romantic perplexities with such dash and style.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The psychological darkness that underpins this film doesn't seem inappropriate to its wit and charm, but rather amplifies it, makes it more real.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Wise and moving.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Smith's story is a charmer: touching, funny, romantic, perceptive, absorbing and full of color and character. And the movie, which has been respectfully and affectionately handled by people who obviously love their source, captures most of those qualities.

Premiere Peter Debruge

What isn't fair is the film's R rating, which makes this charming coming-of-age tale virtually inaccessible to the audience sure to cherish it most.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

If there's true magic to be found in the proceedings, it's in Garai's dexterous performance.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

A delightful coming-of-age movie that teeters on contrivance but never topples.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It's surprising no filmmaker has adapted Dodie Smith's novel before now, and pleasing that Mr. Fywell and company have done such a responsible job with it. It's one of the season's most captivating surprises.

Variety Andy Klein

Fywell has transformed this autobiographical novel into a perceptive, wholly engaging drama, infusing the proceedings with a light tone that almost qualifies the film as a comedy, yet never loses sight of the unpredictability of human emotions.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The evident affection that the filmmakers bear toward Smith's novel, and toward the odd, spirited people who inhabit it, gives the film a modest, hardworking appeal.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

May not be a very grand picture, but it's a gently satisfying one. And if it brings Smith's book just a few hundred more readers, it's admirably done its job.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Falling in love with the wrong person makes for a far more toothsome melodrama, a fact this small, satisfying picture rightly recognizes.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

There's something refreshingly and truly girlish about the picture's musings and epiphanies that makes its R rating baffling.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Sadly too often (and I'm unsure whether this is the result of voices that echo when bounced off stone walls or because the acting is all over the place), the characters create the impression that English is their second language.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A Jane Austen-like tale of sense and sensibility, with some of the wit, but, alas, none of the linguistic legerdemain.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Smith's beautifully observed story of two young women learning how cruel and calculating the world -- and they -- can be is beautifully realized, and Garai stands out among a fine ensemble cast.

Film Threat Rich Cline

Nighy is superb as usual in a much meatier role than even he usually gets. And Byrne makes her character far more three-dimensional than the shallow creature she could have been.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The boys and girls are so busy acting out their romantic fantasies or soulfully pining over impossible loves that, however photogenic they may be, they never seem to actually live their lives.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Smith's book is a charmer, but the keys to this ''Castle'' have been misplaced.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Sweet and sleepy, I Capture the Castle might feel most comfortable in a Sunday-afternoon slot on the BBC.

New York Post Megan Lehmann

Makes its biggest misstep in failing to persuade the viewer the five family members are charming eccentrics rather than irritating weirdos.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The film is weighted down by a dour sensibility at odds with the book's insouciant charm.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

It is, alas, très twee. A muchness of silliness. Beautifully filmed silliness, and fetchingly acted tweeness. But give me Cruella de Vil any time.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

An overloaded script by Heidi Thomas... defeats a fine cast

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Could have been a sensation if a director with a smidgen of moviemaking instinct had taken the helm.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Garai's flowery, overwritten narration proves irritating in the movie's first half, then unfortunately sets the tone for a fatal second-half descent into soap operatics, dippy dialogue, and airless melodrama.